By David Smith
Straight to you from the black-top of the Marriott Center parking lot and green-grassed field of LaVelle Edwards Stadium, the BYU Cougar Marching Band will be performing a free concert tomorrow night at 7:30 in the de Jong Concert Hall.
“It”s the most fun you”ll have at a concert all year,” said Fred McInnis, the assistant marching band director. “We play ”Hey Baby” and everybody sings along.”
“Respect,” “Celebration” and the “Hey Song” are just a few of the 23 songs being performed at the hour and a half concert. Audience members will have a chance to cheer during the traditional fight songs, pre-game and half time numbers the band has learned throughout the semester
“We spent all year working hard out there on the field, and this is our chance to let loose and have fun,” said Jen Connery, a public relations major from Coeur D”Alene, Idaho, and the vice president of records for the band. “None of this ”golf-clapping.” We expect some rowdy audience members. We want clapping, cheering and dancing in the isles.”
The 225 members that make up the Cougar Marching Band are known for adding exciting school spirit to any football game.
Adam Chipman, a junior from San Diego majoring in mathematics, said the marching band is one of his favorite things about BYU football games, and is the only reason he stayed at the Boise State game-a game he said was most memorable for its freezing snowy weather and humiliating 50-12 loss.
Performing also with the band will be the Weapon Squad and Color Guard.
Megan Wagner, an audiology/speech language pathology major from Simi Valley, Calif., and the Weapon Squad captain said she will be twirling rifles, sabers, and flags in the concert, giving the audience “something pretty to look at.”
“It”s free, it”s fun and what else are you going to do on Thursday night?” Wagner said.
For more information about the BYU Cougar Marching Band, go to www.byu.edu/music/bands/Home.htm
